Free Range Eggs Scam. GRRRRR!

[Carmenere]

here
I hope they totally screw these cynical bastards. I really feel angry about being duped in this way. I feel very strongly about battery hens and I would never knowingly buy battery produced eggs.

[charliecat]

So which eggs was it then? Do we know?

[Carmenere]

All of the big supermarkets bought from this fecking cynical, lying bastard So if you have bought what you thought were free-range eggs from Sainburys, Tesco, Asda or Morrisons(and I definitely have, from all of them!)you have probably been ripped off

[charliecat]

arse
Bastard

[flamesparrow]

There aren't many things that I can justify spending that bit extra on, but eggs is (or should that be are??) the one thing I do

[willowcatkin]

Does that include organic free range eggs?

The article was not clear.

[KathyMCMLXXII]

Well having read some of the recent spate of books about supermarkets and their buying practices (eg Joanna Blythman 'Shopped', Felicity Lawrence 'Not on the Label') I can't say I'm at all surprised - supermarkets like to buy in bulk to keep costs down, which means buying from intermediaries and thus having less knowledge of the production; they also move buyers around departments regularly to stop them developing relationships, which means they don't develop expertise, so, again, this means that frauds like this are going to be easier to pull off.

However having read said books and consequently started trying to buy as little as possible from supermarkets I was pleased to discover that free range eggs are one of the things that are generally CHEAPER from independent shops (about 10-15p less per half dozen round here, if you get them from the health food shop/farmers' market/butchers) and they come straight from a local farm (which also makes them fresher).

Fingers crossed that this won't make people stop buying free range eggs, it'll just make more people use local suppliers (but I know it's not that simple if you're busy )

[TooTickyTheLittleRedHen]

To be really sure of good animal welfare, only buy organic eggs approved by the Soil Association.

[fullmoonfiend]

Flamesparrow, I know, ditto
I can buy battery eggs for 45p BUT I choose not to, despite the fact I'm terminally skint. I feel so angry at this....
Recently I have been buying locally produced free range eggs stocked at Asda, cos I was so impressed they were stocking local goods, but they are £1.10 a half dozen. But prior to this, as i shop at Asda, I guess, I've definitely been duped by these bastards.

[Cappuccino]

it does amaze me how much trust people have in supermarkets

I used to work with the farming community and the supermarkets do enough to undermine food production through their deliberate policies

so them not knowing about a few eggs is really the least of the problem

[Carmenere]

Kathy I too have read all those books and buy as little as I can from supermarkets and Cap I am well aware of their dispicable buying practises, I am of the opinion that intensive farming and the demand fro cheap food is one of the major problems in the western world.
Actually there was a really good piece in the Ob Food Mag recently by Joanna Blythman about Lidl and Aldi ect. Her stand on these discount supermarkets is that even though their buying policies are probably as bad as the mainstream supermartket chains, we should all use them to realise how ripped off we are being by the bigger named ones. Supermarkets are truly evil, ripping suppliers and customers off in the name of profit

[KathyMCMLXXII]

Oh that's a very interesting article, Carmenere - I missed it but have just now read it online - thanks for the tip

What Joanna Blythman says there makes perfect sense to me in the light of conclusions I have come to myself from shopping around - supermarkets can be way cheaper on certain types of things, specially basics, and the quality is variable, not always crap, but when it comes to supposedly premium or ethical lines they compare quite badly with independent retailers: rarely cheaper and certainly not better quality. However I am absolutely certain that if I spend two quid on a packet of upmarket bacon at the farmers market or butcher, the farmer is getting most of that two quid, whereas if I buy a similar product from the supermarket for around the same price, the supermarket is probably just making a far higher profit than they are on the 79p basic bacon and I'd doubt the farmer is seeing that much more of it.
And I'm sure JB is right that there's no virtue in shopping at Sainsburys rather than Aldi if Sainsburys isn't paying any more to the farmer than Aldi, they're just raking in more of it for their own profits.

What continues to amaze me about supermarkets (now I've had my own consciousness raised is how many people are still convinced they're always going to be cheaper and better quality than independent shops or markets, when in fact they're just extremely skilled at using things like loss leaders and Jamie Oliver to make us think they are.)

[blueshoes]

what if you are in London? Does "locally produced" apply. The farmers' markets tend to sell specialist products which are pricey in a rivercottage sort of way.

[fullmoonfiend]

if twere possible for me to avoid supermarkets, i would. but I do not drive, all the farm shops round here are not exactly on bus routes. We do not have a local market anymore thanks to lying, cheating council bastards - i live in the sort of town where you can have endless choice of poncey clothes shops or antiques, but not be able to buy fresh fish in the town centre or a bag of pegs or loo rol etc without going to the supermarket. We have a farmers market once a month (hardly sufficient for your shopping needs) and it tends to be more more lavendar pincushions and buffalo burgers rather than 'everyday' organic or locally produced bread/meat.eggs etc. Tis a vicious circle.

[Carmenere]

I know how you feel FMF, I used to live in a town that had NOTHING else but a giant Tesco There was no option but there or go to the next town. Where I live now has a fabulous greengrocers and a great butchers, neither are organic but both are well priced and at least my money is going towards a local business.

[KathyMCMLXXII]

Hmm, good point Blueshoes. Locally produced means something a bit different in London I guess - however if you can afford it (like I say, prices compare well with supermarket organics/ethical though not with supermarket basic) you would have a wide choice of organic box schemes some of which do groceries as well - eg we get our veg from Farmaround North which has a London scheme as well (Farmaround.co.uk) and I notice they do free-range organic eggs for £1.25 the half-doz - not that cheap but the people who run it are very intense so you would trust them 100% to make sure their eggs were ok. I popped into one of the local health food shops this afternoon and noticed that the free range eggs were 85p a half doz. which is pretty good.

We are lucky with our farmers' market - it's held in the livestock auction centre at the same time as stock auctions so it's a bit more down-to-earth (flat-capped Yorkshiremen in search of a bargain etc). Even round here I don't think you could manage to avoid supermarkets entirely though.

FMF - at lying cheating council bastards.

[Mirage]

I'm lucky enough to be able to buy my eggs direct from the farm around the corner,so know that the hens live in good conditions..

I shall be boycotting Somerfield from now on-they are only going to stock French eggs in future,no English ones.

[Mirage]

Wow-I'm getting a good deal.Mine are only £1 a dozen at the minute,as they are bantams eggs & smaller than usual.The bigger eggs were £1.20 a dozen.

[Ponka]

DH worked in an egg factory for a leading company years ago in his student days. If they ran out of normal egg boxes, they were instructed to use the free range ones. It was a long time ago now and things could have changed but DH is still under the impression that buying free range is a waste of money .

[Furball]

On the subjet of eggs - I posted this on another thread yesterday.

Just seen this on the BBC website

'Some eggs produced in Spain and sold in the UK may be contaminated with Salmonella, a Food Standards Agency study found. Tests found that one in every eight boxes of Spanish eggs contained traces of the bug.'

I can't believe that we are importing eggs and that we haven't got enough of uk eggs. They are advising cooking whites and yolks through, just to be on the safe side. My advice would be, stop importing them from there then.

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I buy mine locally - Do you know where yours are from? Does anyones eggs actually have 'made in spain' on them?